Castro house torn down

Cleveland, Ohio (CNN) -- The Cleveland woman who was held the longest at Ariel Castro's house of horrors was there to see it shortly before it was torn down Wednesday.

Michelle Knight handed out yellow helium-filled balloons Wednesday morning to people who'd gathered for the demolition of the 1,400-square-foot house where she and two other women were raped and held captive for roughly a decade.

Minutes later, a hydraulic excavator began reducing the house to rubble, destroying the site of one of Cleveland's most notorious crimes.

Knight told reporters that she was at the demolition site in part to remind relatives of abducted children that all is not necessarily lost.

"I want the people out there to know -- including the mothers -- that they can have strength, they can have hope, and their child will come back," she said.

Castro forfeited the house on Seymour Avenue as part of a July plea deal with prosecutors that took the death penalty off the table in exchange for a life sentence, plus 1,000 years in prison.